Statistical surprise!

I am often surprised when I look at the stats on Blogger.

Who would have thought that 101 page views would come from Japan, or 119 from Russia? A similar number from the US but only 18 from the UK!

The other thing  about the stats is how erratic they are - 2 days at 23 page views, then the next day up in the hundreds. Single spikes from one particular server, presumably from one person, happen every now and then, which makes me a bit paranoid, as in why should someone in Russia
be checking my blog? One can be charitable and say that  some innocent person has found something of interest and is happily reading all the pages (since 2007?  H'mmm)

But the world is such a "scammy" place today that it is so easy to think the worst.

Any day now Blogger is going to force me to switch to its new format. It did this earlier in the month, but the page was totally unresponsive so I reverted. Hopefully they will have sorted the problems before they do the change-over again. I see people complaining that Facebook has forced them to change format and they don't like it. I don't know if I'm on Classic Facebook or the new one, but I'm praying that they both just keep working as they are!

Statistics, damned statistics

Statcounter.

Has anyone used the free version?

I have, for as long as I've been running my blog. But lately it seems to have gone haywire. Some days the figures jogs along  and then there will be a sudden spike.  Someone in Mountain Ash, California, visits and gives me 856 page views. I don't know if I believe in this person or not, but what else can it be? A glitch in the technology? A search bot gone AWOL?

Yet last week I found another location that had racked up 500 odd views in one day, this time from a place midway between Bern and Lucerne in Switzerland. I looked it up on Google Earth and there seems to be nothing there but endless forest. I look at Clustrmap and the stats are entirely different to those on Blogger. Google analytics is different again. It is difficult to know if any of them are to be believed.

Stats are not really so important that I want to pay for installing Statcounter or one of the other systems, and I do wonder if what used to be free is now fast becoming an income stream for someone.

False Figures

I picked up my new glasses yesterday and wore them this morning from first waking up. Every blade of glass was crystal clear during Tim's walk, and I saw two white tails bouncing up and down as deer escaped through the bracken and trees. Only saw their tails, but I was pleased, because deer bones have been found in the last couple of weeks. A hind leg has made the rounds of the field as different dogs found it and trophy-carried it around for a while. Another dog-walker tells me he's seen a couple of heads in a different part of the wood. Coupled with the tyre tracks across the grass I've seen  recently, it looks very much as if poachers have been at work. I was relieved to know that there are still some of the wary creatures around.

Came back and checked my blog stats and was truly amazed to find that today's total was less than yesterday's total. Very odd. I can only assume I misread Friday's total, so perhaps it's just as well I've got new glasses!

On the other hand, it may be Blogger that is at fault. Out with Tim yesterday, I spotted the rabbit (see pic)  and Tim, who was a good deal closer to it, did not. He loped off in the opposite direction without ever sensing it while I took a couple of pictures. Just shows the value of sitting still, saying nothing and minding your own business!

Wattpad, Blogs and PR

The Stat Counter tells me there have been 25,892 visits to my blog since 11th August 2009. The blog page itself shows 51,443 visits, but that might be from a shorter time span. Page views, however, total 93,345! The only way I can think to interpret that is by thinking the visits are what they say they are, but the Page Views must mean that once people visited, they read  more than one page while they were on the blog. if anyone knows any different, let me know!

I'm having such a good time working (and walking the dog!)  that I keep forgetting to do any promotion. Must go and stand on the Naughty Step. PR is such a part of Self Publishing that it mustn't be forgotten. I shall have to train myself to do some every day. On the other hand, I have ventured into Wattpad. It isn't easy to find out how to do things, but it seems worthwhile, with some interesting writing to look at. Should you wish to check out my page, try linking to this :

http://www.wattpad.com/37913888-capture-a-queen?d=ud

The cover I've chosen to use is the one up today.

Wattpad is a Canadian venture and I think Margaret Attwood has something to do with it, but not entirely sure. Lots of people use it, and put up stories for others to read and comment on. It's early days. My piece hasn't been up a week yet and already 120 people have read it. Not many comments though.

Statistics

I'n currently obsessed with statistics. Mine. No, not the hour-glass kind, but my blog stats. I began my blog in 2008 and the stats have been rising steadily year on year - except for last year. They dropped through the January to November period and suddenly started to rise again. Now the worrying thing is were my posts so boring, or was there another reason? Does anyone else check their blog stats?

I'm also trying to find records of my book sales, to see how I'm doing and what sells. I should be able to co-ordinate it with the amount of PR I do, but that may be a step to far. Certainly I record where I promote, so I don't overwhelm one promo site, and I try to vary which title I promote, but it would be a horrendous task. I think I'll save it for a day when I'm really bored and stuck with my writing. First of all, I've discovered a gap in my records, so it would be good to find the missing sheets. Given that my study is a bit of higgledy-piggledy mess, that might not be too easy. Wish me luck!

In case the pic puzzles you, it's a wave coming gently ashore.